Phoenix is located in the northwestern region of Arizona's Sonaran Desert, and is home to the Phoenix Mountains and the South Mountains. The city is also encircled by other mountain ranges, with the White Tank Mountains to the west, the McDowell Mountains to the northeast, the Superstition Mountains east, and the Sierra Estrella to the southwest. RV parks in the area provide their guests with proximity to the area's biking, hiking, and horseback riding trails and parks.

RV Parks

The Desert's Edge RV Village offers full-hookup desert-landscaped sites with patios and picnic tables. You'll also find a pool, a spa, a playground, a fitness room, a basketball court, laundry facilities and a clubhouse on-site. Pets are welcome, and the park hosts a dog-grooming area especially for them. The Desert Sands RV Park features 70 large grassy sites with shade trees and 30- or 50-amp electrical service, and free cable television and high-speed Internet service. Also on-site are picnic tables, a BBQ area, showers and a playground.

South Mountain Park Reserve

Phoenix's 16,000-acre South Mountain Park Reserve boasts over 50 miles of trails for horseback riding, hiking, and mountain biking. Mount Suppoa looms over the park at 2,690 feet above sea level, and hikers can climb up to 2,330 feet to the Dobbins Lookout. The park's trails range in difficulty and height. The National Trail is the longest at 14.3 miles, and reaches the highest altitude of 2,440 feet.

Papago Park

Papago Park hosts an archery range, an exer-course, which incorporates fitness training stations at various points on a 1.7-mile course, 7.8 miles of fishing lagoons stocked with catfish and trout, and a softball complex. Papago also features flat, easy walking trails for families to enjoy, as well as The Desert Botanical Garden and the Phoenix Zoo.

Echo Canyon Recreation Area

Hiking Camelback Mountain in the Echo Canyon Recreation Area is for the more advanced and in-shape hikers. Two strenuous and sometimes tricky summit trails wind upwards to reach 1,200 feet. The mountains reach 2,704 feet above sea level. Hikers are warned that rattlesnakes are common on the trail.

Parks

More than 200 parks in Phoenix offer areas for sports, skating and walking, and the city's water parks help visitors and residents cope with the extreme summer desert heat. The four skate parks include the Paradise Valley Skate Park, the Desert West Skateboard Plaza, Pecos Park Skate Park and Hermoso Park Skate Plaza. These feature snakebowls, kidney bowls, spine bowls, street plazas, flatbars, grinding ledges and blocks, pump bumps, sloped ramps, and radical bumps that can be navigated by novices and experts alike.

References

About the Author

Laura Shapiro has been a writer all her life. In the most recent past she focused on technical articles for Artech Publishing in Milan, Italy, and is currently writing about a variety of topics for One Article a Day and Demand Studios.